Tim Pool
Timothy Daniel Pool (born March 9, 1986) is an American political commentator and podcast host. He first became known for live streaming the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests.[5][6] He joined Vice Media and Fusion TV in 2014, later working independently on YouTube and other platforms, where he is known for promoting right-wing views.[7][8]
Early life[edit]
Pool was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in a middle-class family. His father was a firefighter and his mother sold cars.[9] Pool attended a Catholic school until completing the fifth grade[10] and left school at the age of 14.[9][11]
Career[edit]
Occupy Wall Street[edit]
After watching a viral video from Occupy Wall Street, Pool purchased a one-way bus ticket to New York.[12] Pool joined the Occupy Wall Street protestors on September 20, 2011, and met Henry Ferry, a former realtor and sales manager, shortly afterwards, and they formed a media company called The Other 99.[13] Pool also began livestreaming the protests with his cell phone and quickly assumed an on-camera role.[12] Pool used a live-chat stream to respond to questions from viewers while reporting on Occupy Wall Street.[14] Pool also let his viewers direct him on where to shoot footage.[15] He modified a toy remote-controlled Parrot AR.Drone for aerial surveillance and modified software for live streaming into a system called DroneStream.[16][17] In mid-November 2011, Pool provided non-stop 21 hour coverage of Occupy Wall Street's eviction from Zuccotti Park.[18] Pool's use of live streaming video and aerial drones during Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011 led to an article in The Guardian querying whether such activities could take the form of counterproductive surveillance.[17]
In January 2012, he was physically accosted by a masked assailant.[18][19] Also in January 2012, The Other 99 was disbanded following a feud between Pool and Ferry.[20][21] Pool had also planned on livestreaming occupy protests across the United States for a documentary called Occumentary, but it was never filmed.[12]
Pool's video taken during the protests was instrumental evidence in the acquittal of photographer Alexander Arbuckle, who had been arrested by the NYPD. The video showed that the arresting officer lied under oath, though no charges were filed.[22] While covering the NoNATO protests at the 2012 Chicago summit, Pool and four others were pulled over by a dozen Chicago police officers in unmarked vehicles. The group was removed from the vehicle at gunpoint, questioned, and detained for ten minutes. The reason given by police was that the team's vehicle matched a description.[23]
In the context of the Occupy movement, Pool's footage was aired on NBC and other mainstream networks.[13][16][24][25] According to The Washington Post, Pool "helped demonstrate to activists that livestreaming had potential as an alternative to depending on cable news coverage".[26] He was nominated as a Time 100 personality in March 2012 for his importance to the Occupy movement, alongside David Graeber,[27] as Time dubbed Pool "the eyes of the movement".[28]
In November 2011, Pool told On the Media, "I don't consider myself a journalist." "I consider myself an activist 100%" there "to support the movement."[29] In October 2012, he told El País that "I'm not an activist" and described himself as a journalist.[30] In 2018, Pool said that "I don't align with Occupy Wall Street and never did".[31] In 2021, he denounced the Occupy movement as "crooked".[32]
Views[edit]
In 2023, The New York Times described Pool's podcast as "extreme right-wing", and Pool himself as "right-wing" and a "provocateur".[86] In November 2022, NBC News referred to Pool as a "right-wing influencer".[87] In 2021, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described Pool as a "reactionary".[88]
According to Al Jazeera in 2020, "Pool has amplified claims that conservative media endure persecution and bias at the hands of tech companies."[89] On August 24, 2020, Pool announced his support for Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, writing that he felt alienated by changes he perceived in the modern left.[57][72] On July 12, 2022, the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack included clips of a 2020 video from Pool as part of a montage of videos showing support for Trump's announced rally on January 6.[90]
One July 2019 Vice article described Pool as "a right-wing media figure", while another Vice article from the same month described him as "lefty" and "progressive".[91][92] In 2019, Pool described himself as a social liberal who supports Bernie Sanders.[93] According to Politico in 2019, Pool's "views on issues including social media bias and immigration often align with conservatives".[93]
Pool describes himself as a centrist, and rejects a left–right political spectrum for both self-description and in other contexts, instead dividing the public into those who are "discerning" and "skeptical" regarding legacy media (which Pool describes as left-wing) and those who are "undiscerning" and "uninitiated".[94]: 210 He often discusses his impression that "the news is dying" and that it tends to skew towards liberal and left-leaning audiences as a result.[94]: 211 Prior to Occupy Wall Street, Pool sometimes described himself as being anti-authoritarian or "pro-transparency", but did not think of himself as being very political.[12]
Personal life[edit]
Pool lives in West Virginia.[95] Prior to the Occupy movement, Pool lived with his brother in Newport News, Virginia, where he played guitar and made skateboarding videos.[12][13]